good morning, and welcome to "this week." face-off. >> we got to win in virginia. >> we will win ohio. >> hours away for that crucial first debate, candidates gain expectations. >> romney is a very good debater. he's practiced and practiced and practiced and practiced. >> the moderator and obama are going to come after him. >> the big questions, can romney reset his campaign with a strong debate? or was early voting under way -- >> president obama. >> is it too late for a turnaround?

>> four years from his last debate. >> you're wrong. >> will be president obama be rusty? we'll ask our headliners. new jersey governor chris christie and the president's senior adviser david plouffe. and our powerhouse roundtable. squaring off, haley barbour and howard dean. plus, matthew dowd, donna brazile and maggie haberman of politico. hello again. we're heading into the home stretch of this campaign. just 37 days before the final votes. with all eyes on this week's first debate. the candidacy are hunkering down in debate camp. where the race stands. what to expect wednesday? white house adviser david plouffe standing by for the president. but let's begin with the romney

camp, new jersey governor chris christie. good morning. >> good morning, george. >> since the convention, romney has fallen behind in the battlegrounds. new polls out this morning, ohio and iowa, behind. governor romney has to shake things up wednesday night. >> he's going to, i mean, every time mitt romney has been confronted in this campaign with one of these moments, he has come through the debate and performing extraordinarily well. contrasting himself and his vision to whoever the opponent was at that time. when we get to thursday morning, you'll be saying it's a brand-new race with 33 days to go. >> that hasn't happened yet. on the one hand he has to be assertive with the president but like wbl the voters. how does that happen. >> be truthful. if you tell the truth about what's going on in our country,

people are going to understand that's critical of the president's stewardship, also to lay out a positive and hopeful vision for what the future can be for our children and grandchildren under a romney administration. romney can walk and chew gum at the same time. i'm not worried. listen, i love this stuff. oh, he hasn't debated in four years. poor president obama, he's only been the leader of free world and commander in chief of our military. i think he's had a few debates over that time. the president has always been good. but he can't change the facts and that's going to be the problem for the president. >> two-minute ads straight to camera, here's portion of them. >> governor romney believes with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy and fewer regulations on wall street all of us will prosper. in other words, he doubled down on the same trickle-down

policies that led to the crisis in the first place. >> how would you respond to that on wednesday? >> stop lying, mr. president. >> lying? what's the lie there? >> what romney said the wealthy will pay just as much under the romney administration -- the tax rate will go down. they'll lose deductions and other loopholes that they'll have them paying the same. that's what governor romney's plan. i love that ad. $4 trillion reduction in the debt, really, mr. president? really. he hasn't come forward with a plan. it's great ad. it sounds really nice and looks nice. but there's nothing substantive there. >> the comeback from president obama at that point, where are the details, that same question could be put to governor romney, you said hard truths in the

convention, governor romney hasn't laid out which deductions will go away for the wealthy. >> the president of the united states has an obligation to be the one who's the most specific. >> so the challenger doesn't have to. >> i didn't say that. that ad does nothing to add to the debate and discussion except to not tell the truth. he starts off by not telling the truth. the president says governor romney wants more tax cuts for the rich. which is not true. governor romney said it over and over again, the rich will not pay less. >> the tax rates will come down. the same amount of money coming out of your pocket and my pocket, you're no particular

time not worried. we're competing in a global economy, and so, that's what governor romney is laying out a very clear visio he's going negotiate with congress about those loopholes. that's what he's going to do. he's not going to lock himself into something now. the voters have the right to know what direction he's going to take the country in. he's going to reduce so nobody is payingless in the wealthy class than before. the president has never learned, 85 prkt of his legislation was democratic when he was governor in massachusetts. you can lay out aspirational goals and visions, you have to get down to negotiating to get things done. the president doesn't know how to negotiate and compromise. >> governor romney has been getting a lot of advice from some pretty anxious conservatives. one wants a bigger, bolder

campaign. he said, go large mitt. for six months, he's been matching obama small for small ball. a hit and run critique here, a slogan of the week there. his only momentum came when he chose paul ryan. do we need a bolder campaign from romney. >> i think we need a big and bold performance on wednesday night. the fact is, the ideas are there, but let's face it, george, lot of filtering going on, what i will tell you, this is the first moment when the american people will be able to see these two guys side by side, laying out their vision, unfiltered. i think that's going to be a powerful moment for mitt romney. >> you alluded to, do you buy this argument that some conservatives are making that it's skewed against mitt romney. >> i don't buy it.

it's not intentional. do i think there's a concerted effort to skew the polls against governor romney i don't buy that. >> final question, todd akin running for senate in missouri. last year, reince priebus was here. we're seeing prominent republicans coming out in support of him. >> he doesn't have my support. >> governor chris christie, thank you for your time. let's turn now to the white house view. david plouffe is running debate prep -- part of the debate prep for president obama, he joins us now. you just heard governor christie on right there, he said that the president isn't going to tell the truth on wednesday night. >> of course, we are, george. first of all governor christie, and i think this clearly the

romney belief, they're predicting that the race will change fundamentally. what does that mean? states like ohio and iowa, become very close and tightened up. there will be a way to measure this. challengers tend to do well in debates. we believe that governor romney has more benefit out of this debate than we do. what we tell the people, exactly where we are as a country, where we need to go, how we rebuild the economy and with great detail so people understand, if this president gets reelected what he's going to do for them the next four years. >> governor christie said that the wealthier are going to get a tax cut that is a lie from president obama. >> strong words, but not true. listen, analysts have looked at this. someone who makes over $3 million a year, would get over a quarter tax cut if governor

romney's plan was enacted. $2 trillion in defense spending that our pentagon and military leadership say we don't know. that's $8 trillion. the notion that somehow by closing loopholes for the wealth they're, the middle class is going to be held harmless. the middle class has to understand, if romney wins this presidential election they'll be paying the bill not to reduce the deficit, not to reduce jobs, to give huge tax cuts. >> the idea of the president is not going to tell the truth, this has become the theme inside the romney camp. >> you learned and studied all this about president obama as a debater, what are you looking? >> i think he's going to say a lot of things that aren't accurate. i would be tempted to go back to that line by ronald reagan, there you go again. >> your campaign has gone overboard at times with the

rhetoric, are you worried that president obama is going to have a rough night with fact check ners. >> absolutely not. we still believe that this is going to be a close race. the reason, you know, governor romney is having a rough patch here is not because what we're sieg about his plans, it's his plans. look in the mirror. people don't want to go back to the same trickle-down policies in the first recession. also, this 47 .comment, you know, i think the message that e sends to american people, if he has written off half the country, they're not his concern, so, we're happy to have a debate about our economic plans, our tax plans, where we want to take the country in terms of health care and education. by the way, it's rich. george you covered this race very carefully.

governor romney during the primary, when his opponents complained, he stopped whining. he questioned the president on, making us a less christian nation. give me a break. you know, presidential campaigns are tough, but we're saying the truth about what governor romney wants to do. but, we're very confident with the case. we're going to make proactively about the president. >> the governor has shown that he can be tough in these debates as you pointed out. we're seeing reports that he's preparing some zingers. >> i think the president views this as part of the entire campaign. you know, our convention, the events that we do in battleground states. ads we're running. now, the debates. a chance to have a conversation with the american people.

now, governor romney clearly, that i have been practicing these zingers and lines for months. but that's ultimately not what the american people are looking for, some may judge those to be some ranked well, but the american people are going to be listening not for a clever line but a good idea to help move this country forward. that's our focus. listen, he's prepared more than any candidate. we believe that governor romney has been a good debater in the past, he's very prepared. so, we understand he'll probably have a good night on wednesday night. >> you mentioned governor romney's response to the attacks in benghazi. the stories about what exactly happened that day. susan rice on this program said it was a spontaneous response to an anti-muslim film. since then we have learned that it was on organized attack and

that some intelligence and pentagon officials suspected that early on and that's prompted this criticism from governor romney. >> we've seen a confused, slow, and inscent response to the terrorist attack in libya. a refusal to be frank with the american people about what happened. >> the chairman of the homeland security committee peter king has gone even further calling on susan rice to resigned. >> absolutely not. george, there's been an ongoing investigation. so, there's been information provided real-time. you'll know more about an event a week after it happens. >> officials in 24 hours that suspected it was a terrorist attack. >> what ambassador rice and others were doing were going on what our intelligence we were receiving.

let's talk about governor romney for a moment, you know, we're happy to have a debate about our approach to terrorism and foreign policy. the president promised that he'll end the iraq war, he did. he would focus on osama bin laden and bring him to justice, we did. romney called ending the iraq war tragic. it was unthinkable that we didn't leave 20,000 troops behind. he said famously in 2008, he wouldn't have gone into pakistan to get bin laden. these are important issues. not just from a foreign policy standpoint, one of the reasons that we have huge deficits we have these unpaid wars. the voters also view these foreign issues through a prism. >> david plouffe, thank you very much we'll be right back with our powerhouse roundtable in just 60 seconds.

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quick change there. george will is off today. we're joined by donna brazile on the roundtable. matthew dowd. maggie haberman of politico. howard dean for the democrats. and former governor haley barbour for the republicans. matthew dowd, let me begin with you, setting the stage where the race is right now, we see president obama ahead five points nationally, right now, ahead in all of the battleground states, what happened in september? >> i think, this race, if it's a five-point race, is when you look at this, the national number is 5er 6. all of the target states are going be somewhere around that

national number. what i think that romney -- what happened to romney campaign, i think political malpractice. they left the playing field to the entire obama campaign. they allowed them to outspend them in the summer. and basically set the tone for the final 60 days of this campaign. which puts them behind after the convention. now, they're behind in the prism of which voters view this is negative for mitt romney. i want to put up a chart right now. it comes from the "new york times" after that 47% comment right here, you see it right there, it look at how it opens up in that last week and a half that was damaging? >> well, it may well end being damaging. this campaign is all about process, it's about polling, campaign management. it's about everything but the issues.

it's about everything but obama policies. how does that turn that around? >> stay totally focused on the fact for most americans, you can't tell the difference between the recession and the recovery. in fact, since this data came out this last month, the average american family lost $2500 of income during the obama recovery. they only lost 1500 worth of income during the recession. no wonder they don't think that the recession is over. >> donna, that's kind of astonishing. president obama defying gravity right now. >> i was looking at some of the recent polls, 42% of the country believe that the country is in better shape. that next year will be better. despite the doom and gloom, the cold towel and the wet water that the republicans continue to throw over the slow economic

recovery, most americans are feeling better. not good enough to go home and write out the next check for the obama campaign. good enough for the obama campaign to believe that they have a slight wind at their back. >> one thing that's working for them, maggie, it does seem that voters have accepted kind of a mediocre economy. >> that paradigm, the president is doing better. so, people feel their lives aren't great, mitt romney isn't offering an alternative. i think that's the problem. >> maggie mentioned this right track slshg wrong track, you have seen coming into this year, some thought we were going in the wrong direction, now it's below 60%, do people really think things are getting better or adjusting their views to conform with their votes? >> i don't think this is the new

normal at all. if you look at barack obama's accomplishments they're pretty compelling. mitt romney we should go back to the same policies we had before. obama gets credit for having delivered stopping the bleeding and starting to get better. revising of the new jobs created. we're doing better. american people know it. but the real reason that mitt romney probably isn't going to win this election, no matter how well he does, when you ask the question, does this candidate care about me? 40% gap. mitt romney can't connect. >> let me ask governor barbour about that right now, that's one of the stubborn facts in the polling of this election, romney's personal favorability

hasn't moved that much. >> this election doesn't need to be a popularity contest. this is about what are we going to do about the future of the country? i don't think ronald reagan won because he was a happier person. ronald reagan won because the country was in bad shape. you compare the recovery under obama, this year the economy's improved 1.6%. that's the best he's done. after the recession, when reagan was president, the first year 4% economic growth. the idea that we can't have a growing economy is something that is not being talked about enough, anywhere except for the dining room table. >> the interesting thing about the race the national equilibrium is about two-point

race. if mitt romney has a good five days, this race will dwindled down to a two-point race. the environmental factors, all begin to take place. the biggest change that has happened in this, mitt romney wanted this to be a referendum election. at some point, he has to fix that really quick. >> and i think the time is running out. you get three chances. of course, his vp pick hasn't turned out to be so good. we'll get more into that. the convention speech. everyone know that wasn't a speech that really gave us a better idea about mitt romney and the third opportunity has become the debates. 1980s, the republicans constantly go back to the 1980s like that's some guide post.

this is a different recession. therefore it's going to take us much longer and much slower. the republicans haven't offered the country in terms of where they want to take the country, in terms of growing the economy. >> you know, we got to tak quick break. we'll talk about the debates in just a little bit. everyone will handicap those debates. isn't anybody going to give us the red meat rhetoric that we come to expect from the united nation and this is a bomb. >> that's what i'm talking about. in the case of iran's nuclear plans to build a bomb, a red line should be drawn right here. >> i just got to say this, bibi, what's with the whily coyote

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a lot more roundtable coming up after thi

♪ i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i'm not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> if kitty dukakis were raped or murdered would you favor a death penalty for the killer? >> no, i don't, bernard. i opposed the death penalty during all of my life. >> i have had much experience in congress as jack kennedy when he sought the presidency. >> senator, i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> big moments in debates past.

let's talk about debates future. maggie haberman of politico, let me begin with you, how much the debates really matter. you see the moments that come out of them. how much difference? >> they can make a huge difference. especially for mitt romney. the risk for romney not doing well wednesday night will not tune in for later debates. i think there's not a loft enthusiasm on either side, frankly. if romney doesn't do something to seem serious and a hope for obama mistake there's very diminishing returns. >> governor romney has to shake things up on wednesday? >> romney has to get this debate focused on policies. and his alternatives and why they would do better. virtually no talk about that in this campaign. if this campaign turned to that,

that's hugely to romney's advantage and that's what he needs to focus on. >> does he have to give out more details? >> interesting to me to hear you guys talk about details. i didn't any of that in 2008. kay ser announced last week, since obama care was adopted. family insurance premiums have gone up $3,000. senator obama, how are you going to do that? it's not normal. >> i think all of us are talking about romney needs to shake up this race and change the dynamic. the poll numbers show that's the case. it's likely to change anyway even with a modest debate performance. i don't think we can take away the pressure that's on the president in this debate. because i remember full well in 2004, george w. bush was 6, 7

points ahead of john kerry. he didn't prepare well. that race went from a six-point race to a one-point race in 48 hours. i think barack obama has to be careful. that he doesn't come across irritable or impatient. perform well from a mannerism standpoint. if he doesn't, this race goes a one-point race. >> donna brazile, matt dowd brings up the mannerisms. you were in the al gore camp, everyone thought that he cleaned george bush's clock, but on mannerisms he ended up losing. >> we remember the split screen. al gore was sitting there, rolling his eyes, looking at george bush and basically, he started -- >> did president obama have that vulnerability. >> look, i governor romney

speaks in perfect sound bites. i attended many of those republican debates. one thing that's very good at is turning a negative question, a question directed to him into a positive question. he's a very skillful debater. he's been in dress rehearsal for five years. i suspect that governor romney is going to come well prepared to put the president obama on edge. what will the president have to do early on is jump-start and make sure that governor romney never gets the ball back. >> other things working in governor romney's favor, challengers always do well in first debate. >> he really is prepared and he does speak in sound bites and he's very good at this.

he'll do well. the key to a debate, if you want to see how it moves the american people is to turn off the sound, watch the mannerisms, it's not what they say, there may be a zinger and that could change things, it's not what they say but their mannerisms. the president has to avoid being irritable. governor romney will try to put him off-balance. he has to relax, he has to show a little sense of humor, show why he's likable. that's all nonverbal clues. >> maggie, doesn't mitt romney also in this debate, he needs to have a moment that dominates news coverage in the days coming out. >> yes, absolutely. to governor dean's point, i

agree. there's a concern for the president in not looking like mitt romney is getting to him. >> let's show some of that. we have a little mon stage of the best and worst moments of each candidate in their debate and i tell you what, 10,000 bucks. $10,000 bet. >> i'm not in the betting business. >> he's very likable. i agree with that. i don't think i'm that bad. >> you're likable enough, hillary. >> thank you. >> the idea that i'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. >> when the war started you said that it was going to quick and easy. you said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction. you were wrong. each candidate are much better when they're on offense. but, one of this things we're seeing telegraphed by the romney

camp that the governor may call him out by not telling the truth. >> the campaign isn't about truths. obama has a huge advantage. the facts, chris christie was on here earlier, the facts of what's happening in america, the reduction of the america standing in the world, the reduction of middle class prosperity in the world. the idea that health care costs are going up. health care premiums are going up. the federal reserve board, for the first time, says the economy is so bad, obama's policies are so bad, thatville to have the job creation, unprecedented job creation program. nobody said, what does that mean? the own federal reserve board has given up to his program. >> in the course of these debate if truth is on trial, if you look at all of the ads that have been run and said, both sides have a real incapacity to tell

the truth to americans. we'll have to basically, we'll -- taxes have to be included and expenditures have to be included. romney puts paul ryan on the ticket. >> let me stop you there, truth going to be on trial, won't that have to be up to the candidates? i don't think the moderators will be fact-checkers in this debate. >> that's part of the problem in the environment that we're in. everyone views the truth through their own prism and doesn't accept reality if it disagrees where they are. i think both sides are going to accuse the other side of not sharing the sides. >> they're both they're going to do that. at some point, have to be called

on it. >> who makes that decision is the voters. i think voters are going to start penalize people who don't cooperate. republicans wouldn't pass the president's jobs bill. this isn't about obama's record. this is about what's going on in washington. question is, who do you trust more to end that? and i think the odds are now with obama because people see obama as having try to work the other side. i think we'll get to a better place. i think it's going to be after the election. >> and this is the difficulty, always with governor romney is that, he wants to come across as someone who can work with the other side and of course, during the republican primary, he was the hard liner, the severe conservative, i suspect on wednesday night, romney will be

go back to the moderate conservative. he'll talk about, you know, he worked with ted kennedy. this governor is going to try to move the ball a little bit back to the center. >> let me ask governor barbour about that, do you think romney should have moved quickly to the middle and why didn't he? >> i can't answer your question, romney just needs to be romney. that's what he needs to do. he needs to come forward with the policy. matt said something that's very important. a campaign about big issues would help romney if they would just stuck to it. start with it. stick to it. i thought that picking ryan was a very bright thing to do, because there hadn't been a campaign since the 1980 that they didn't say the republicans were against medicare. let's talk to the people about

medicare. they'll understand. >> i think their biggest mistake the romney camp have made, they have gone small ball. if they raised it up and let has a debate about the flospy of government, here's our philosophy, here's his philosophy, this is the difference. you make the choice. >> what you're seeing is a reflection of the candidate and that's the problem. >> you both raised two questions that i want to get to, you talked to small ball and the weekly standard this week came out with a flyer that the romney campaign is sending out in northern virginia that i want to put up on the screen right now, a flyer about how the romney campaign is going to do a better job of making sure people who had lyme disease. >> very surprising to me. not surprising in the context of

the fact that this campaign has trouble sticking to a singular narrative. surprising mostly because this isn't a thing that people are screaming about in the election, we're not hearing a lot about lyme disease. it seems like someone was on the romney camp at some point in virginia. you're seeing the tactics. they're very visible from the romney campaign. part of it is, they do a message reset and they're not doing >> having been one of the people, creator of microtargeting of campaigns in 2004, there's been a total misread of what that is. you do all of this slicing and dicing and find out some weird issue, like lyme disease, you do that. what microtargeting, the best target is you find individuals that you otherwise couldn't have

found in areas that you wouldn't campaign in, go to those people with big issues. >> not the small issues. >> not the small issues. find the big issue. lyme disease a city council race. people in presidential races want conversations about big stuff on big things. if you find the person and deliver the big message. >> if you're not running a big campaign, if you're slicing the lekorate into these small microunits, when people get on the bus they're talking about you. this type of campaign that mitt romney is running it's a very localized campaign. you don't hear anything big. i was down in southwest virginia, i'm about to talk about coal, no, they're not talking about that. they want to talk about the

economy and jobs. >> let's pick up on the point that governor barbour made, one of the biggest moves that he made was picking ryan this week. this medicare debate has backfired. the polling from the washington post this week, looking at the battleground states of ohio, florida and virginia, up on the trust to handle medicare that is the wrong graphic right there, up 19 points on medicare. 13 points in virginia. governor dean the medicare campaign seems to be working. >> it is. i talked to a republican from florida the other day who's in a position to know this stuff, he says that they're getting crushed on medicare in florida. that's because paul ryan gave us the opening. because he actually is on record essentially saying we're going to voucherize medicare. whether it's for 55 years old or 65 years old gets lost in the

argument. it transformed the race in florida. it's unbelievable. >> the fact of the matter is, if you can pick paul ryan and you're going to make medicare an issue, you got to stick with it. the more information that the american people have about medicare, the more they understand they understand the republicans are right. president himself said in 2009, medicare and medic aid are unsustainable as they are now. the actuaries say it's unsustainable. obama said we're not going to talk about that until after the election. ryan who's been very open, we're going to give you medicare that's like the health insurance congressmen get. >> but nobody believes it, though. >> i totally agree with governor on this, when you do this kind

of thing you have to double-down on it. you can't just throw it out there. if you have to say basically say, this is may be unpopular, this is who we are -- >> the other problem with this. this is the problem -- this is one of basic rules, campaigns aren't for education, they're for winning. you do the education after. if you run a campaign on educating people i guarantee 9 times out of 10, you lose the campaign. that's exactly what happening here. >> if you tell them this is campaign about educating people and you don't do that, that's a lose i losing campaign. bob dole never got 43% in

the poll. it was because of the mediscare campaign. >> in 2010, you guys ran that campaign against democrats and i think you were successful and that's why you took back the house. if you unleashed the ryan plan to people -- >> we saw a big moment at the u.n. general assembly. benjamin net anyahu went before the general assembly talking about iran's nuclear capability. at some point, he drew the red line for that cartoon. he also had a new assessment of when iran would reach the moment where they would have a nuclear capability. >> by next spring, at most by next summer, at current enrichment rates they would have finished the medium enrichments and move on to the final stage.

>> matthew dowd n some ways i thought that this was the biggest political news of the week. we talked about the x factors that could affect the campaign in the final weeks. he's saying there, basically there's not going to be a military attack between now and the election. >> traditionally september of campaigns are the month of mistakes. which happened with the 47% video in october, month of debates. what changes elections fundamentallies are the unknowns. those things that we have no idea are out there. i think actually, benjamin netanyahu, i think over the last 48 hours has become to pull back, maybe i should leave the presidential race up to the president candidates. we have 38 days left.

something is going to happen in the race to focus on these men. >> does that mean, perhaps, governor barbour, mitt romney should turn this race to foreign policy. >> no. i think the american people are focused on the lack of jobs, the loss of income, the poor prospects. they are concerned that america's lost standing in the world. they're concerned about how backwards the middle east has gone in the last year. they're more concerned about their children having jobs. they're much more concerned about that than they are about foreign policy and that's why, you know, romney has got to continue to put the spotlight back on the results of romney's policies, which are very poor and what he would do differently that would be more promising. >> i agree with the first thing, that he shouldn't focus on

foreign policy and the last point put his focus on domestic. first of all, the arab springs have mostly been successful. it turned out that the libya people rebelled against the terrorists that attacked our embassy. we have an elected president that may or may not be our pal in egypt. in tunisia we're doing the same thing. the president has improved our standing remarkably in the world. >> as matt dowd talked about, this year could be different in a couple of ways, number one, this is the most partisan locked-in electorate very few undecides. right now. secondly with more early voting this year than ever before, by the time candidates get to to the third debate, you could have one-third already voting.

>> this is real concern for governor romney. some of the dips that you're seeing in the polls potentially the last week have been related to that. there was a decrease for governor romney after that. that's a big concern. i think that will be some intervening efsht. >> how does mitt romney peel away voters who right now that say they're going to vote for obama? >> the failures of obama's policies and offer them what he would do and why that would be better for their families, their communities and our country. pretty simple. >> we'll be watching wednesday night. thank you for a terrific roundtables. governor barbour and dean will answer your questions on twitter. and now -- three moments from

this week in history. what year was it. >> so help me god. >> a new swing vote on the supreme court. >> judge and now justice kennedy. sounds good, doesn't it? >> it appears that pan-american flight 103 was bold. terrorism. and -- the opening night for broadway's longest running show. >> far more than an old-fashioned broadway musical. >> was it 1986, 1987 or 1988? we'll be right back with the answer. two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone tonjoy --

and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country. in fact, over the last five years, no other energy company has invested more in the us than bp. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. today, our commitment to the gulf, and to america, has never been stronger.

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so what year was it? when justice kennedy and phantom of the opera debut. 24 years ago, 1988. now we honor our fellow americans who serve and sacrifice as we learned overnight of a sad milestone, the 2,000th death of an american service member. in the longest war. this week the pentagon released the names of three soldiers killed in afghanistan. today's question comes from christy johnson. how do you book guests, keep them from fighting before the shows begin, decide timing and

content. >> we looked for well informed insightful analysts. from this green room surveillance cam, everyone gets along just fine before the red light comes on. by tend of the roundtable, i hope everyone watching has a good handle of what happened in politics that week and what to look for in the week ahead. ask me questions all week long on twitter and facebook. that's all for us today. thank you for sharing part of your sunday tonight. check out "world news" with david muir tonight. and tune in wednesday night for special coverage the one-on-one the candidates debate. i'll see you tomorrow on "good morning america." ♪

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